Exodus 2:12
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
Moses looked this way and that to make sure no one was watching, then killed the Egyptian who was beating and oppressing a Hebrew brother and hid his body in the sand. He acted from sympathy and anger at the injustice, hoping to defend his people and win their freedom, believing they would understand that God had raised him up as their deliverer. In doing so he took into his own hands in haste the work God had promised to do, trying to deliver Israel in his own strength and by force of arms rather than by God's mighty arm. The taking of life was a great sin and grave mistake that showed the spirit of Satan and proved him unfit to represent the God of mercy and to lead Israel, revealing the foolishness of man's wisdom and the weakness of human strength without God. God overruled even the rash act yet sent him away for forty years of humble shepherd discipline in the desert until pride and self-sufficiency were swept away and he learned dependence, humility, and implicit obedience, for God would deliver Israel by His own mighty power alone that the glory might belong to Him alone.
The Act in Egypt
Moses looked this way and that way to make sure no one was watching before he acted. He took care to check that no one was present, then struck the blow in secret.
He slew the Egyptian who was beating and smiting a Hebrew, oppressing an Israelite and fighting with his Hebrew brother, and he hid the body in the sand. The killing was done privately, out of sight, with the body concealed to cover the deed.
The act became known, and Pharaoh sought Moses's life for it. So Moses fled from Pharaoh's wrath to Midian, to Arabia, becoming a fugitive and exile in a strange land. In that defeat and disappointment he risked all and failed, and the trial that came upon him drove him from Egypt.
He acted from sympathy for his oppressed people and from anger at the injustice done to them. He hoped to defend his people and help bring about their freedom. He tried to win them by righting their wrongs, by putting himself on their side against the oppressor.
He acted believing the Israelites understood that God had raised him up to deliver them. He expected them to know he was the one who should deliver them and to recognize him as their deliverer.
Failure and God's Training
Moses took into his own hands the work God had promised to do, trying in a hurry to begin delivering Israel in his own strength and force and might. Though he already knew God would deliver Israel by his hand and was chosen for the work, his thorough training in Egyptian wisdom in the best schools, as Pharaoh's grandson, as a general of armies, and in service under Pharaoh had molded him to trust his endowments, human strength, wisdom, and learning and to expect deliverance by the sword, by warfare, and by force of arms rather than by God's mighty arm. He mistook God's purpose, hoping to win his people by righting their wrongs and to deliver them by force of arms. That training disqualified him for his appointed work, and its effect appeared when he privately slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
The killing was hasty, rash, and presumptuous, done by his own judgment, by human invention, and in the ways of men rather than in faith. It was the same error often committed by his fathers, and in rushing ahead of the Lord and running before Him instead of following where He leads he revealed the foolishness of man's wisdom, the weakness of human strength, self-confidence, pride and self-sufficiency, and his utter helplessness and inefficiency without being upheld by God. The taking of life was a great sin and grave mistake that manifested the spirit of Satan who was a murderer from the beginning, proved Moses unfit to represent the God of mercy, love, and tenderness and to lead Israel, and was a miserable failure of his first attempt in which he risked all. God did not intend to deliver Israel through warfare or through Moses's power, wisdom, and strength, but by His own mighty power alone so that the glory would belong to Him alone. Moses had yet to learn the lesson of faith taught to Abraham and Jacob, not to rely on human strength or wisdom but on God's power for the fulfillment of His promises, learning dependence on divine power, distrust of self, humility, self-control, obedience, and implicit obedience whether God's commands seemed proper to human reason or not.
God overruled even this rash act to accomplish His purposes, yet Moses was not prepared and not ready to be entrusted with the great work. In defeat and disappointment he at once lost confidence in God, turned his back on his appointed work, and concluded that his sin in taking life shut him out from any part in freeing his people from cruel bondage. He needed time and an education through adversity and poverty before God could entrust it to him. God sent him away for forty years of discipline in the desert, in humble shepherd work keeping sheep in the rocks, mountains, and desert and patiently hunting stray sheep, until adversity, poverty, patience, self-denial, harmony of heart with God, and compassionate, long-suffering care swept away his pride and self-sufficiency and made him a tender, patient, loving, faithful, reverent, humble, and very meek shepherd fitted to deliver Israel. Only then did God reveal Himself in the bush as the I AM and command him to go and deliver the children, and though the Lord afterward spoke to him face to face as a man speaks to a friend he did not become lifted up or think he could teach the Lord how to work.
The Lord permitted the mistake in the very height of Moses's human glory to teach him the gentleness, goodness, and long-suffering every worker for God must possess to be a successful workman. All the learning of Egypt could not make him a sanctified channel through which God could manifest great power and free Israel from difficulties they could never escape by themselves until he lost self-confidence, realized his helplessness, put his trust in God, submitted to God's discipline, changed his way for God's way, and by simple, implicit faith in God's power and loving intentions pressed through difficulties and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles by reliance and obedience. The verse warns against cherishing self-sufficiency and acting as men who would kill, and teaches humility and meekness, helping one another and dealing carefully with souls in peril so as not to drive them further from Christ, for faith moves in the strength and wisdom of God and not in human power.